Bug#533077: linux-image-2.6.26-2-486: on an idle system /dev/random gets depleted very quick

[Folkert van Heusden <folkert@vanheusden.com>]

> > >>> Now add strace to those commands.  Do you see the problem?
> > >> Nope, works as expected:
> > > 
> > > You have different libs than we all have. Ours shows:
> > > | open("/dev/urandom", O_RDONLY)          = 3
> > > | read(3, "\34\344C\242", 4)              = 4
> > > | close(3)                                = 0
> > > 
> > 
> > Note that it is fixed in glibc 2.10 with kernels >= 2.6.29.
> 
> It's "fixed" in that Drepper changed the kernel's ELF loader to
> initialise the random bytes itself.  The entropy pool is still depleted
> by every process startup. :-(

I noticed it during the development of my entropybroker package: I
noticed that it was constantly refilling /dev/random on all of my linux
boxes. Glad to know the bug is not in my program :-)
Should I submit a bug report for glibc?


Folkert van Heusden

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